


Lucas

by Jellyfish_Tacos



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Angel Wings, Angst, Character Death, Depression, Grief/Mourning, Guardian Angels, Haircuts, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Sad Ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-20
Updated: 2018-10-20
Packaged: 2019-08-04 18:54:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16352267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jellyfish_Tacos/pseuds/Jellyfish_Tacos
Summary: Otabek is assigned to be the guardian angel of a human named Yuri Plisetsky. All the while invisible, he guides Yuri and helps him cope with his grief and depression.





	Lucas

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this over a year ago for a zine and don't know why I didn't post it. It's probably really bad, but please let me know if you enjoyed it <3 Almost done with the new Break a Butterfly chapter c:

Otabek scanned over the file as he flew, committing all of its information to memory. It was a pretty standard case, although it was nothing like the previous one he had done. He had a feeling that this was going to take a lot longer than that one had. Otabek was new to the profession, having only recently died and been assigned to the rank of guardian angel, and so far he had only helped one person turn their life around for the better. He was just happy that he was able to help people get out of rough patches in their lives. 

Otabek rolled up the scroll and tucked it into his robes. Delicately, he landed on the wall of a rooftop and spread out his wings for balance. His long white feathers ruffled slightly in the wind. Surveying the city, he searched for the street named in the file. His eyes narrowed as he picked it out, and he dove from the building with his wings folded in close. Just before he hit the pavement, he snapped them open and glided a foot off of the ground. He passed through several people, but all they felt was a gentle gust blowing past, and they held onto their hats to keep them from blowing away. 

Veering to the left, Otabek flew vertically for a moment before levelling out. Beating his wings to gain altitude, he soared up to the fifth floor of an open apartment complex. He counted the windows silently, then alighted upon the right sill and closed his wings. While he could have gone around and through the front door, this was faster. He lightened his mass a bit and floated through the wall, then touched down on the carpet. 

As he scanned the room, a chill ghosted down his spine and an ache twinged in his heart. He wasn’t sure why; it was just a normal apartment and angels couldn’t feel cold. It was as if this place was familiar in some way. Pizza boxes and cans were strewn about. Observing his surroundings as if he were in a dream, Otabek slowly stepped forward. 

The dingy ceiling was low, and there was a crack splitting it like a mouth in one corner. But besides that, Otabek thought that it wouldn’t be too bad of a space (provided that it was cleaned up). His mind turned to the question of where his patient was. 

While he did not see him, a cat sauntered up and tried to rub against him like they were old friends. Animals tended to be more perceptive to the supernatural, he had discovered. He patted the cat’s head to the best of his ability (his hand merely went through), and the animal purred at him. 

Otabek entered the bedroom and his gaze fell onto a man sitting on the floor, slumped against the wall. He matched the description in the file: a 25-year-old male with blonde hair and blue-green eyes. He suddenly glanced up as if he’d been startled, and looked directly into Otabek’s eyes. For a moment, Otabek thought that he had actually seen him. As he looked at Yuri Plisetsky, his heart pounded in his chest. It shouldn’t have been possible. He felt a spark dart through his veins. 

That face, with its jewel-like aquamarine eyes, caused something to stir within Otabek. He felt like he’d somehow seen it before. Golden hair tumbled down Yuri’s body to his hips, seeming a lovelier halo than the glow surrounding Otabek’s head. Otabek was saddened by the state that Yuri was in. There were dark circles under his puffy red eyes, and his cheeks were sunken in. His face was flushed in a way that suggested drunkenness, a theory confirmed by the quarter-full bottle of clear liquid that was clenched in his fist. 

A shadow imp was perched on Yuri’s shoulder, tail flicking as he whispered into his ear. Yuri’s face scrunched up in misery, head leaning back. He let out a pitiful wail then hiccupped, new tears rolling down from his eyes. He buried his face in his knees, wrapping his arms around them and letting go of the bottle. Vodka trickled out and onto the carpet. 

Swiftly, Otabek grabbed the evil little creature tormenting Yuri by the neck and dispatched it. However, the damage had already been done. Yuri’s body trembled, taut, as he wept. Otabek sat down beside him, watching out for any more spirits. He wished that he could pull Yuri into a tight embrace, but he wasn’t capable. Poor Yuri. The file had said that he’d recently lost a loved one, and had been plunged into a downward spiral. 

Softly, Otabek murmured positive words of encouragement to Yuri and hoped that some of it would stick. While they couldn’t be heard directly, sometimes guardian angels’ words were interpreted as the little voice in the back of a person’s mind. While Otabek’s utterances didn’t seem to be entirely effective, Yuri’s sobs grew less violent. 

He fell into a troubled sleep right there on the bedroom floor, and Otabek dutifully slayed the stampeding nightmares that attacked him with his fiery dagger. Some managed to slip past, however, melting into Yuri and making him moan in misery. 

~~~~~~~~~~~

It seemed that Yuri’s grief was relentless. He cried nearly constantly, his empty eyes bloodshot and swollen. He hardly ate, slept, or left the house, but he didn't drink that often, either, which was a relief to Otabek. He suspected that Yuri couldn't afford alcohol, and he was too miserable to leave and buy some anyway. 

Spirits of darkness tormented him incessantly, however, and Otabek couldn’t keep them at bay. Yuri’s phone would frequently light up with a message or vibrate from a call; these were all pointedly ignored. Yuri was heartbreakingly skinny, on the brink of emaciation. Nearly every rib showed, even more obvious under his pale skin, and was a testament to his loss of motivation to eat. 

It seemed like anything could cause Yuri to burst into tears. A scarf, a lonesome sock, and stray hair that was short and dark… Otabek guessed that all of these belonged to the person that no longer walked the earth. 

One day, Yuri was looking into the mirror and bracing himself with the sink. He was staring at his reflection with anger and bitterness. He glared at himself as tears started to drip down his cheeks, and pulled violently on a lock of his hair. Otabek cringed as he did so; it looked painful. Yuri forcefully yanked a drawer open and procured a pair of gleaming scissors. He considered them for a moment, face twisted in anguish. Otabek stood there, helpless, as Yuri attacked his hair. A severed lock slipped off of his shoulder, and Otabek instinctively reached out to catch it. His hand only slowed its descent nearly unnoticeably. It slipped right through his fingers and fluttered to the ground. Golden hair littered the tile like sheaves of wheat. 

When the deed was done, Yuri stared at himself. His chest heaved with sobs. Tears splattered onto the counter. His face twisted, red and wet. With a pathetic and furious yell, he hurled the shears across the room. Slowly, he sunk to the floor and pressed his back against the wall. The cat walked in and nuzzled its head against his legs. 

Otabek gently stroked the tattered remains of Yuri’s hair and whispered sweet words to him. He wished that he could offer more consolation, but all that his touch did was ruffle the shorn strands like the softest of breezes. 

~~~~~~~~~~~

People would sometimes ring the doorbell bearing food and gifts, but Yuri just ignored all of them. When the buzzing that signalled a visitor filled the apartment, Yuri simply wrapped his blankets more tightly around his body and the demons would laugh and jeer. Otabek fought them all off diligently. One couple came by at least twice a week, and always left sad because they wanted to see Yuri. The casseroles and pies that people brought rotted on the doorstep, and the packages became waterlogged and started to disintegrate. 

Yuri didn’t bother to go down and fetch his mail either, and the box was quickly stuffed full of envelopes. If he remembered to charge his phone, he would sometimes scroll through old pictures. (He seemed to avoid social media as best he could.) His index finger lingered on some of them, and hopeless tears would pour from his eyes like a leaky faucet. They depicted him and a stranger with tan skin, dark hair, and an angled face. 

Otabek got a strange feeling looking at the images. It was like how he’d felt when he’d first entered the apartment and seen Yuri, but different somehow. This one gave him a twinge of panic in his belly, as if he was forgetting something important, but he didn’t let this distract him. He kept defending Yuri from the evil spirits intent on harming him to the best of his ability. 

At first Otabek thought that he was imagining things, but it became clear that, slowly but surely, less nefarious creatures were assailing Yuri. The first undeniable sign of improvement was when Yuri actually left the apartment (in his dirty pajamas) and travelled down a couple flights of stairs. He quickly returned to safety, but, to Otabek's delight, a few days later he tried again and managed to make it down to his mailbox. He piled envelopes into his arms and trekked back up. Otabek wished that he could assist him in carrying them, but all he could do was stay on the lookout for malicious spirits. 

Otabek knew that this was the first tiny step on the road to recovery. With his constant praying and guarding, Yuri began to show subtle improvement. He ran out of ramen and canned soup, and was forced to walk down the street to the grocery store for food. Otabek whispered into his ear in an attempt to persuade Yuri to make healthier choices, and some were actually accepted. 

Yuri slowly began to eat more, until he no longer completely resembled a skeleton. He still had a long way to go, but getting some nutrients was helping to improve his mental state. Yuri began to occasionally bother to take showers, and even got dressed once in awhile when he went to the supermarket. 

One time, he picked up a complimentary newspaper and set it onto the coffee table. Using all of his strength, Otabek blew on a page and, with considerable effort, was able to turn it to the job offers section. When Yuri passed by, he actually bent down to read what it said. To Otabek’s elation, he marked one of the contact information lines with a pink highlighter. Otabek swelled with pride. 

But the paper just sat there for a week. It got coffee stains and wrinkles on it, which disappointed him immensely, because he knew how much having a job would help Yuri. But one day as Yuri was watching tv, he shuffled through the old newspapers and picked up the page with the highlighted bit. 

After some time in which Yuri frowned at the paper and chewed his cheek, he begrudgingly withdrew his phone and dialled the number. Otabek was ecstatic. A couple days later, Yuri prepared for his interview. He showered, shaved, and put on a purple button down and wrinkled slacks. Otabek wished that he could adjust Yuri's tie for him. 

He followed Yuri to the employer’s office and stood beside him the entire time, in hopes that his presence was helping to soothe Yuri’s nerves. To Otabek's sadness, Yuri did not get the job and fell back into old habits for several weeks. 

But Otabek diligently supported Yuri and protected him, and he eventually picked himself back up and tried again. And again. But then, finally, he got a part-time job at a chain fast food restaurant. It wasn't much, but Otabek was so happy for him. 

While Otabek was filled with joy that Yuri was doing better, he also found himself feeling sorrowful. The other person he had served hadn't made him feel this way when their time of parting grew near. It was very strange. Otabek tried his best to ignore the sensation, but it wouldn't go away. He was starting to get a suspicion, but he pushed it away. 

The day came when Yuri actually answered the door when it rang. It was the couple that consistently visited and left gifts. Yuri opened the door and stared at them for a moment, then allowed them to embrace him. A tear rolled down his cheek. He invited them inside, and they talked for a while. Yuri actually laughed. 

There was one tense moment, when one of the guests let a name slip. When he heard it, Otabek's blood ran cold. It had been his name. The man that uttered it covered his mouth, and then apologized. Yuri grumbled forgiveness. For the rest of the visit, they treaded carefully, and Otabek's ethereal pulse raced. 

Before they left, they hugged Yuri again. He pretended to be annoyed, but he was clearly the happiest he had been in a long time. 

Looking at him, Otabek knew that it was time to say goodbye. Yuri went back into the apartment and laid down on the couch. He fell asleep, and the sun's setting rays illuminated his cropped, dishevelled hair. He looked as if he was glowing. 

Otabek knew, somehow, that he had witnessed a similar scene many times before. The reality of who he had been before death was undeniable; he had been Yuri's other half. Funny how everything was clear to them in their last moments together. How ironic that he had helped Yuri cope with the loss of himself. 

Ghosts of memories were surfacing. The way Yuri's hand felt in his. Comforting him when his grandfather had passed. Kissing him like usual without knowing that it would be the last time. 

Otabek couldn't bear to linger any longer. It was far too painful. He folded his wings behind him and looked down at Yuri for the final time. He reflected on what their lives could have been like together, and all that had been lost. 

And then he leaned down, closed his eyes, and gently kissed Yuri's forehead to say farewell.


End file.
